Transperency label: human only
When Randolph Lalonde released the first “broadcast” of his Spinward Fringe space opera in 2008, AI was entirely in the realm of science fiction. Lalonde imagined AIs as autonomous agents capable of making complex decisions, sometimes with unintended consequences. He portrayed AIs both as companions (personal assistants worn on the wrist, shipboard intelligences) and as adversaries (corporate-controlled AI enforcers). His AI characters often formed deep, personal bonds with humans, raising questions about trust, dependency, and emotional attachment to machines. Fast forward to where we are today, and these AI themes are remarkably relevant to current debates.
The pace of AI development is accelerating, and we are on the cusp of seeing autonomous agents as an everyday reality. Alongside that, a capable, open source AI can now run on a desktop computer. If I set up my own personal or business AI on an Apple Mac Mini, newly-emerging software tools will let me access it securely from almost anywhere through my laptop, tablet or smartphone, and thus probably from the smartwatch on my wrist as well.
Tailscale is one such tool. It is like a private, secure internet just for you or your business, allowing you or your team to access files, apps, or AI tools from anywhere, without exposing sensitive data online. It does this by creating a secure, peer-to-peer mesh network in which devices connect directly to each other rather than through a centralised server. This network operates over but is entirely private from the internet.
If you are running an AI locally on your own server, you can use Tailscale to connect to it securely from your laptop, tablet or phone. No data leaves your control, and you can use the AI without having to put your data at risk. The direction of travel is clear; momentum is gathering and it will be impossible to stop. The best society can do is try to steer it.